


I Can Help Him Better Than You Can

by migz_writes



Series: Defenders of the 99th Precinct [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crack, Humor, M/M, broganes because yes, pidge is a lil shit, shiro is insecure oh no, shiro is tired of everyones shit, why is this lowkey angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-04 21:38:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15849864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/migz_writes/pseuds/migz_writes
Summary: "Sarge, with all due respect, I am gonna completely ignore everything you just said."





	I Can Help Him Better Than You Can

**Author's Note:**

> y'all wanted this...so here ya go

"C'mon, Sarge, just give me a cooler case! I'll never be able to beat Keith in the bet if I can't even arrest anyone in any of my cases!"

"McClain, just work the case that I assigned you," Shiro sighed, visibly exhausted.

"But," Lance whined, "Why does Keith get to work the cool case about sex trafficking and all I get is a stupid missing dog? That's not fair"

"People like dogs."

Lance scoffed, "Yeah, but finding a missing dog doesn't get you like fifteen arrests."

Shiro just stared at Lance, silently pleading with him to just drop it and leave him alone. The last few days had been so mentally and physically taxing, he'd had to reschedule his first date with Adam three times now because of work. He hadn't slept in nearly forty hours because this stupid B and E was still unsolved. He had vowed that he wouldn't eat or sleep until it was solved, which now looking back at it, was a bit ridiculous. But Mrs. Shirogane did not raise a quitter. Only a disaster gay.

Shiro felt his head slowly inching closer towards the desk, and his eyes drooping down

"You okay?" Lance snapped Shiro out of his thoughts. They were mainly about how much he wanted to sleep in that moment. Or get yogurt.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just trying to solve this case," Shiro said.

Lance peered over Shiro's shoulder to stare at the case file, "Hmm, maybe I can help. I'm pretty good at these sorts of things, I'm sure I'll get it done in no time."

"How?"

"I'm a detective...I will...detect." Lance said, a bit too confidently for the words that had just come out of his mouth, but Shiro was too tired to point it out.

Shiro wanted to refuse the offer at first, but eventually realized that Lance wasn't going anywhere, so he caught him up on the case. He went through all the possible entry and exit points for the burglar, and why each of them were invalid after investigating. They worked on it together for a bit and were actually making a bit of progress. Lance was actually being really lowkey and helpful, then Keith wandered into the door, and his eyes immediately locked on Lance's.

"What are you doing McClain? I told you to leave Shiro alone! He needs his rest!" Keith scolded, "Why must you ruin everyone's life?"

"Excuse me, I'm a delight!" Lance strode half way to Keith.

"Don't walk too much, wouldn't want your cloven hooves to get sore."

"Are you calling me the devil?"

"No, I'm calling you a goat," said Keith. "You goat. And an unhelpful one at that!"

Lance gasped indignantly, "Forget you! I am helping him! That's more than you've been doing!"

"Oh, is helping a superior officer a competition to you? Grow up."

"What? Afraid you can't take it? Title of your sex tape."

Keith clutched his heart as if he had just been stabbed, "I can help him better than you can!" Keith said as he made his way over to Lance.

"Prove it!" Lance stabbed a finger to Keith's chest as a challenge. The whole scene was a bit strange to watch.

Keith let out a low growl, then snatched the case file away from Shiro and brought it over to his own desk. Lance ran after him, shouting insults, many directed towards Keith's mother. Unnecessary, because Krolia was actually a lovely woman.

They sat squished together at Keith's desk, and with that, the two of them fought and argued over the case for hours. Shiro wanted to tell them to stop, but his eyes betrayed him at some point, and he drifted off to sleep.

Shiro awoke when he heard yelling. His initial instinct was to reach for a weapon, but then he recognized the voices as Keith and Lance's. Still arguing over the case.

"NO, I SOLVED IT!" Lance yelled, pointing his thumb at himself.

"THAT'S A LIE AND WE BOTH KNOW IT!"

Shiro looked around and saw that Pidge and Hunk were just staring at Keith and Lance. They looked like excited movie-goers watching the most anticipated movie of the year.

"Where's the Captain and Coran?" Shiro asked to no one in particular.

Pidge and Hunk both noticed that Shiro had woken up and smiled, "Allura and Coran went to some cop's funeral, we didn't know him." Then she went back to watching Keith and Lance. Shiro stared at the pair for a brief moment before realizing that they'd solved the case.

"How'd they solve the case? I've been working on it for almost two weeks."

Hunk shrugged, "You know how competitive they are. We should see if they can figure out if 9/11 really was an inside job or not."

Pidge scoffed, "Please, it was obviously an inside job."

"Why you always gotta be so negative?" Hunk said.

Pidge whipped her head around to narrow her eyes at Hunk, "It's called being realistic."

Shiro sighed and turned his attention back to Keith and Lance, "I'M THE ONE WHO NOTICED THE MISSING TROPHY IN THE THIRD PHOTO!"

"THE TROPHY DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE ACTUAL PERP!"

"YEAH, BUT IT'S WHAT LEAD US TO THE SON, AND THAT'S WHAT GOT US THINKING ABOUT THE GIRLFRIEND!" Lance argued back. Keith took a few steps towards Lance and tried to tower over him, but they were the same height, so it really just looked like they were a couple that was leaning their foreheads against each other.

Pidge leant towards Hunk and Shiro, "The sexual tension is real." Shiro and Hunk couldn't help but nod in agreement.

It'd been almost a minute and neither Keith nor Lance had said a word. They just stayed their glaring at each other. Out of the blue, Lance jumped up, "I'm going to cut off your hair in your sleep."

"Yeah! Wait! Let me get the popcorn!" Pidge encouraged Lance. Keith sent her a murderous glare.

"You will do no such thing McClain." Shiro ordered.

"But-" Lance tried to argue.

"No buts. This is a workplace and this behaviour is unprofessional." Shiro barked at the younger officer.

"Hah! You're unprofessional!" Keith taunted Lance.

"You're no exception Keith," Keith winced at that because of his issues with needing to please authority, "You've both been acting like children, and you two," Shiro turned to look at Hunk and Pidge, "you just watched while your co-workers were fighting with each other without attempting to stop them! Why does it feel like I'm the only one here trying to keep this precinct together? I'm only one person, I can't take on all of your drama!"

The group went silent. No one moved a single hair.

"Now get back to work."

"We're sorry, Shiro." They all mumbled in unison.

After that, they all went back to work, Shiro quickly thanked Lance and Keith for solving the case, albeit angrily, then went to the supply closet that he knew Coran used to take naps.

Now, Shiro was against people using their phones at work, but ever since he had given Adam his number, the other man had been sending him selfies documenting everything he did during the day. Shiro had no choice, he had to save every selfie and stare at it for a few minutes at a time. Okay, maybe he technically did have a choice, but let's be honest, with his whipped ass, he really didn't.

The latest selfie was one of Adam and a houseplant, the caption reading _'new member of the family, Fern'_

Shiro couldn't help but smile at how extra Adam was being for a houseplant. He typed back a _'Don't kill it like the last one'_

Almost instantaneously Adam responded, _'Fern is sentient and Fern goes by she/her pronouns. Takashi, I thought you would know better than to assume. But then again, maybe I don't know you that well. Speaking of getting to know you, any idea when that date is going to happen?'_

Shiro typed out a, _'Sorry, work has been really busy, I promise soon.'_ but there was a knock on the door before he could press send. Shiro tried just staying silent because he didn't want anyone to know that their sergeant was hiding from them in a closet. That part of his life ended in high school, let's be real.

"Shiro, it's me, I know you're in there." Keith said from the other side of the door.

"Come in," Shiro said.

Keith slowly opened the door and took a seat next to Shiro. "So tell me what's bugging you."

"Keith, I'm fine."

"Shiro, don't 'i'm fine' me. I know you better than that."

"It's personal stuff, you don't care." Shiro said

"Yes, I do. Shiro, you've never snapped at us like that. Well, you've snapped at me, Lance, and Hunk, but never Pidge. I know something's bothering you because we've done things way worse than today, and you never even batted an eye." That much was true. They had done so much worse.

"I don't want to burden you with my problems. You don't want to know."

Keith cut off Shiro, "Sarge, with all due respect, I am gonna completely ignore everything you just said. I mean seriously? We all burden you with any minor inconvenience in our lives, I think I can handle this."

Shiro looked at Keith, and then back at the ground and refused to make eye contact with Keith, "It's stupid. It's about Adam." Shiro showed Keith their texts.

Keith twisted his head to read Shiro's phone screen. Keith mouthed the words as he read them, a habit from childhood that had not gone away. Then he looked up at Shiro once more, "But work has only been busy because you basically stopped being a normal human until that case was solved."

"I know, and I solved the case days ago. I knew it was the neighbour, he knew where they hid the spare key because he would stalk them through his peephole through the door, but it was my only reason  to stay at the precinct and not go on a date with Adam." Shiro said, his voice tapering off towards the end."

"I know it's scary to get into a new relationship, but I thought you liked Adam?"

"Of course I do, so much. I really do. And that's exactly why I'm avoiding him. I'm just...what if Adam doesn't want to keep going out with me once we actually go on our first date."

"Wait," Keith gasped, covering his mouth with his hand. "You guys haven't been on a date yet? I thought you guys already went on a date, you told us it went great. You lied?"

Shiro groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes, "Ugh, yes, I lied. I keep making excuses, but I'm just scared. Because, I know he had a crush on me in high school, he wasn't exactly subtle about it. He would go around constantly making up excuses to make physical contact with me, but we're both different now, and it's just so much more complicated now. I know that I've changed a lot since the ninth grade. What if he doesn't like twenty-six year old Shiro, and he wants fifteen year old Shiro."

Shiro could remember so clearly how adorable Adam had been in high school. But he wasn't ready to admit to himself that he liked guys, so he pretended not to notice the fact that Adam was totally into him. It was easier than telling Adam anything meaningful or real. If anything ever got deep or emotional, Shiro what just say, "Noice. Toit. Smort." That response was slightly less acceptable as an adult than a teen.

"Okay, A) if he wants to date fifteen year old Shiro, that's pedophilia which, just, no, not okay. And B) why wouldn't he like you? You're like the kindest and most caring person I know. You're always there for each and every one of us no matter what you have on your plate, you always make room for us. And if Adam doesn't appreciate that, then he's insane."

"How the hell did I get here?  _You're_ giving me advice."

Keith sputtered in offense, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I think you're a great detective, but last month you let Coran spray tan you orange just so you could get an abandoned briefcase that only had a single condom in it."

"Well, in my defense, the condom wasn't expired. So I gained something from it."

"Keith, the briefcase was abandoned over forty years ago. You should _not_ use that condom" 

"Okay, yeah, so we both know it was expired, but it's not like I'm going to get anyone pregnant anytime soon."

Shiro wanted to point out that condoms weren't just for preventing pregnancies, and that they also protected against STIs, but that wasn't the point of this conversation. Still though, always use protection, kids.

"It's just, I never thought I'd see the day where you would be more reasonable than me," Shiro clapped a hand onto Keith's shoulder and smiled.

Keith grinned, "Yeah, well, you're getting old, about time for you to retire and let me be the one with all the wisdom."

"Not sure that's how it works."

"Okay fine. Deny me of my destiny. We'll see how Adam likes that."

Shiro chuckled.

"But in all seriousness, Adam is totally still into you."

Shiro didn't completely believe all that Keith had said, but he wanted to.

"Thanks, Keith. You're becoming more mature and I kind of hate it, but still. Thank you ."

"Anytime you old fart."

"And he's back."

"Now go home and call Adam. Lance and I will handle the paperwork and get the perp." Keith said.

"Are you sure the two of you can do that without killing each other?"

"No promises." Keith muttered, then practically shoved Shiro out the door.

The cold air from outside hit him like a truck, and it took him a second to actually register that Keith had kicked him out and that Allura was away, so he had just left Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk alone in the precinct with no supervision. Fuck. Shiro hoped that the next day when he got back to work, the precinct would still be in one piece.

He rifled through his jacket pocket for his phone and tapped on Adam's contact, which was saved as a favourite.

Shiro tapped on the call button his finger shaking, and placed the phone to his ear to talk with Adam even though every fibre of his being was terrified to.

Adam picked up on the second ring, "Takashi."

Shiro's heart felt warm at the brightness in Adam's voice.

"Hey Adam, so I just got kicked out of my own precinct, which means I'm free. You wanna grab a cup of coffee?" Shiro shoved his other hand in his pant pocket nervously and had to remind himself to breathe, as a true disaster gay must.

Shiro could hear Adam chuckle on the other end of the receiver, "Definitely. I'll meet you at the coffee house on 5th street in ten minutes."

 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on instagram
> 
> @alecswood (editing account)  
> @migz_doodles (shitty drawing account)


End file.
